Description

In 2012, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, gave a series of lectures about the Federal Reserve and the 2008 financial crisis, as part of a course at George Washington University on the role of the Federal Reserve in the economy. In this unusual event, Bernanke revealed important background and insights into the central bank's crucial actions during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Taken directly from these historic talks, The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis offers insight into the guiding principles behind the Fed's activities and the lessons to be learned from its handling of recent economic challenges.

Bernanke traces the origins of the Federal Reserve, from its inception in 1914 through the Second World War, and he looks at the Fed post-1945, when it began operating independently from other governmental departments such as the Treasury. During this time the Fed grappled with episodes of high inflation, finally tamed by then-chairman Paul Volcker. Bernanke also explores the period under his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, known as the Great Moderation. Bernanke then delves into the Fed's reaction to the recent financial crisis, focusing on the central bank's role as the lender of last resort and discussing efforts that injected liquidity into the banking system. Bernanke points out that monetary policies alone cannot revive the economy, and he describes ongoing structural and regulatory problems that need to be addressed.

Providing first-hand knowledge of how problems in the financial system were handled, The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis will long be studied by those interested in this critical moment in history.

About the author

Ben S. Bernanke served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. He has also served as chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors and as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Before his time in public service he was a professor of economics at Princeton University. His many books include Essays on the Great Depression and Inflation Targeting (both Princeton).

Google Play reviews now use Google+ so it's easier to see opinions from people you care about. New reviews will be publicly linked to your Google+ profile. Your name on previous reviews now appears as "A Google User".

Google Play reviews now use Google+ so it's easier to see opinions from people you care about. New reviews will be publicly linked to your Google+ profile. Your name on previous reviews now appears as "A Google User".

Write a review

My review

Review from

Reviews

4.0

8 total

A Google User

THE FEDERAL RESERVE AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke (Essays on the Great Depression, 2000, etc.) presents his views on the Federal Reserve System, central banking and the financial crisis in four lectures given to students during the course of 2012.The author examines what the Federal Reserve was intended to accomplish, how it performed its statutory task as it evolved over time and the special functions of the

Reema Arya

Review: The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis This book is a great recap and synopsis of events that led upto the 2007 financial crisis and fed's actions during and following the crisis. It only takes a few hours or a day to read it. Must read prior to a financial service interview or something.

Robert

Review: The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis Explanations on why the Fed acted with such accommodating monetary policy. Great read.

Joel Blunt

Review: The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis Fantastic! Simple, relatively easy review of the financial crisis and the steps the Fed took to deal with.

Melissa Kneubühler

Review: The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis Pretty dense and succinct explanation of the Fed's history, the events leading up to the financial crisis and the Central Bank's subsequent reaction. The inclusion of the Q&A sessions provides ...

Fred Kohn

Review: The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis A good economics book explains things you didn't realize before and makes you think about things you hadn't thought about before. This series of four lectures isn't an exhaustive history of the fed ...

Critic reviews

A Google User

Kirkus - Jane Doe

THE FEDERAL RESERVE AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke (Essays on the Great Depression, 2000, etc.) presents his views on the Federal Reserve System, central banking and the financial crisis in four lectures given to students during the course of 2012.The author examines what the Federal Reserve was intended to accomplish, how it performed its statutory task as it evolved over time and the special functions of the

Review: The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis This book is a great recap and synopsis of events that led upto the 2007 financial crisis and fed's actions during and following the crisis. It only takes a few hours or a day to read it. Must read prior to a financial service interview or something.

Review: The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis Pretty dense and succinct explanation of the Fed's history, the events leading up to the financial crisis and the Central Bank's subsequent reaction. The inclusion of the Q&A sessions provides ...

Review: The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis A good economics book explains things you didn't realize before and makes you think about things you hadn't thought about before. This series of four lectures isn't an exhaustive history of the fed ...

The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis In March 2012, Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke gave four lectures to undergraduates on the origins and role of the Fed. His texts, charts, and answers to student questions are contained in this slim

Similar

Today's financial crisis is the result of dismal failures on the part of regulators, market analysts, and corporate executives. Yet the response of the American government has been to bail out the very institutions and individuals that have wrought such havoc upon the nation. Are such massive bailouts really called for? Can they succeed?

Robert E. Wright and his colleagues provide an unbiased history of government bailouts and a frank assessment of their effectiveness. Their book recounts colonial America's struggle to rectify the first dangerous real estate bubble and the British government's counterproductive response. It explains how Alexander Hamilton allowed central banks and other lenders to bail out distressed but sound businesses without rewarding or encouraging the risky ones. And it shows how, in the second half of the twentieth century, governments began to bail out distressed companies, industries, and even entire economies in ways that subsidized risk takers while failing to reinvigorate the economy. By peering into the historical uses of public money to save private profit, this volume suggests better ways to control risk in the future.

Additional Columbia / SSRC books on the privatization of risk and its implications for Americans:

The Federal Reserve System, which has been Congress’s agent for the control of money since 1913, has a mixed reputation. Its errors have been huge. It was the principal cause of the Great Depression of the 1930s and the inflation of the 1970s, and participated in the massive bailouts of financial institutions at taxpayers' expense during the recent Great Recession.

This book is a study of the causes of the Fed’s errors, with lessons for an improved monetary authority, beginning with an examination of the history of central banks, in which it is found that their performance depended on their incentives, as is to be expected of economic agents. An implication of these findings is that the Fed’s failings must be traced to its institutional independence, particularly of the public welfare. Consequently, its policies have been dictated by special interests: financial institutions who desire public support without meaningful regulation, as well as presidents and those portions of Congress desiring growing government financed by inflation.

Monetary stability (which used to be thought the primary purpose of central banks) requires responsibility, meaning punishment for failure, instead of a remote and irresponsible (to the public) agency such as the Fed. It requires either private money motivated by profit or Congress disciplined by the electoral system as before 1913. Change involving the least disturbance to the system suggests the latter.

“Required reading. . . . Shows how our economic crisis was a failure, not of the free market, but of government.” —Charles Koch, Chairman and CEO, Koch Industries, Inc.

Did Wall Street cause the mess we are in? Should Washington place stronger regulations on the entire financial industry? Can we lower unemployment rates by controlling the free market?

The answer is NO.

Not only is free market capitalism good for the economy, says industry expert John Allison, it is our only hope for recovery. As the nation’s longest-serving CEO of a top-25 financial institution, Allison has had a unique inside view of the events leading up to the financial crisis. He has seen the direct effect of government incentives on the real estate market. He has seen how government regulations only make matters worse.

And now, in this controversial wake-up call of a book, he has given us a solution. The national bestselling The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure reveals:

Why regulation is bad for the market—and for the world What we can do to promote a healthy free market How we can help end unemployment in America The truth about TARP and the bailouts How Washington can help Wall Street build a better future for everyone

With shrewd insight, alarming insider details, and practical advice for today’s leaders, this electrifying analysis is nothing less than a call to arms for a nation on the brink. You’ll learn how government incentives helped blow up the real estate bubble to unsustainable proportions, how financial tools such as derivatives have been wrongly blamed for the crash, and how Congress fails to understand it should not try to control the market—and then completely mismanages it when it tries. In the end, you’ll understand why it’s so important to put “free” back in free market.

It’s time for America to accept the truth: the government can’t fix the economy because the government wrecked the economy. This book gives us the tools, the inspiration—and the cure.

The financial crisis that began in 2007 in the United States swept the world, producing substantial bank failures and forcing unprecedented state aid for the crippled global financial system. Bringing together three leading financial economists to provide an international perspective, Balancing the Banks draws critical lessons from the causes of the crisis and proposes important regulatory reforms, including sound guidelines for the ways in which distressed banks might be dealt with in the future.

While some recent policy moves go in the right direction, others, the book argues, are not sufficient to prevent another crisis. The authors show the necessity of an adaptive prudential regulatory system that can better address financial innovation. Stressing the numerous and complex challenges faced by politicians, finance professionals, and regulators, and calling for reinforced international coordination (for example, in the treatment of distressed banks), the authors put forth a number of principles to deal with issues regarding the economic incentives of financial institutions, the impact of economic shocks, and the role of political constraints.

Offering a global perspective, Balancing the Banks should be read by anyone concerned with solving the current crisis and preventing another such calamity in the future.

The international financial crisis that has held our global economy in its grip for too long still seems to be in full stride. Former British Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown believes the crisis can be reversed, but that the world’s leaders must work together if we are to avoid a decade of lost jobs and low growth.

Brown speaks both as someone who was in the room driving discussions that led to some crucial decisions and as an expert renowned for his remarkable financial acumen. No one who had Brown’s access has written about the crisis yet, and no one has written so convincingly about what the global community must do next in order to climb out of this abyss. Brown outlines the shocking recklessness and irresponsibility of the banks that he believes contributed to the depth and breadth of the crisis. As he sees it, the crisis was brought on not simply by technical failings, but by ethical failings too. Brown argues that markets need morals and suggests that the only way to truly ensure that the world economy does not flounder so badly again is to institute a banking constitution and a global growth plan for jobs and justice.

Beyond the Crash puts forth not just an explanation for what happened, but a directive for how to prevent future financial disasters. Long admired for his grasp of economic issues, Brown describes the individual events that he believes led to the crisis unfolding as it did. He synthesizes the many historical precedents leading to the current status, from the 1933 London conference of world leaders that failed to resolve the Great Depression to the more recent crash in the Asian housing market. Brown’s analysis is of paramount importance during these uncertain financial times.

As Brown himself said of his ideas for the future, “We now live in a world of global trade, global financial flows, global movements of people, and instant global communications. Our economies are connected as never before, and I believe that global economic problems require global solutions and global institutions. In writing my analysis of the financial crisis, I wanted to help explain how we got here, but more important, to offer some recommendations as to how the next stage of globalization can be managed so that the economy works for people and not the other way around.”##

***

The crisis exposed the contradiction of globalization itself: as economies have become more interconnected, regulators and governments have failed to keep pace and increase coordination. It is a failure intrinsic to unregulated global markets, an instability that resulted from the manner in which increasing flows of capital around the world happened and impacted the economy. And it is a failure of collective action at an international level to respond quickly enough to the structural imbalances and inequities that arose.

At its simplest, then, this is the first true crisis of globalization. For the first time everybody, from the richest person in the richest city to the poorest person in the poorest slum, was affected by the same crisis. Although its roots are global, its impact is local, directly felt on nearly every main street, on nearly every shop floor, around nearly every kitchen table.

Billions of people around the world are in need of and are demanding a better globalization. It is the nature of power that you always leave tasks unfinished when you leave office. It is the nature of politics that the argument must continue. This book is my warning of a decade of lost growth and my answer to that fear with a call for a better globalization. It is an explanation of a pattern in the numbers that points to an enormous opportunity to alleviate poverty, create jobs, and grow. A future of low growth, high unemployment, decline, and decay is not inevitable; it’s about the change we choose. -- From Beyond the Crash

The global financial crisis is largely behind us, but it left challenges it posed to the stability of the world's financial system, to the well-being of families all over the globe and to the academic consensus on the way the economy works. To describe those challenges and the lessons learned, the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution turned to front-line policymakers and some of their most prominent critics. This volume provides the papers the Hutchins Center commissioned–on unconventional monetary policy, on financial regulation, on the impact of the crisis on the independence of the Fed–and transcripts of a lively discussion of those issues. It also includes an interview with Ben Bernanke, then in his final weeks at Fed chairman, by Liaquat Ahamed, author of the Pultizer-Prize winning Lords of Finance.

We all know that the financial crisis of 2008 came dangerously close to pushing the United States and the world into a depression rivaling that of the 1930s. But what is astonishing?and should make us not just afraid but very afraid?are the shenanigans of the biggest banks since the crisis. Bob Ivry passionately, eloquently, and convincingly details the operatic ineptitude of America's best-compensated executives and the ways the government kowtows to what it mistakenly imagines is their competence and success. Ivry shows that the only thing that has changed since the meltdown is how too-big-to-fail banks and their fellow travelers in Washington have nudged us ever closer to an even bigger economic calamity. Informed by deep reporting from New York, Washington, and the heartland, "The Seven Sins of Wall Street," like no other book, shows how weOCOre all affected by the financial industryOCOs inhumanity. The transgressions of ?Wall Street titansOCO and ?masters of the universeOCO are paid for by real people. In fierce, plain English, Ivry indicts a financial industry that continues to work for the few at the expense of the rest of us. Problems that financiers deemed too complicated to be understood by ordinary folks are shown by Ivry to be financial legerdemain?a smokescreen of complexity and jargon that hide the bankersOCO nefarious activities. "The Seven Sins of Wall Street" is irreverent and timely, an infuriating black comedy. The Great Depression of the 1930s moved the American political system to real reform that kept the finance industry in check. With millions so deeply affected since the crisis of 2008, youOCOll finish this book asking yourself how it is that so many of the nationOCOs leading financial institutions remain such exasperating problem children."

"Brings clarity to this period of financial chaos. Highly recommended." Library Journal

The crises facing the U.S. economy in 2008 have thrown a sharp spotlight on Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. Each of his moves to address worsening economic conditions have been reported and analyzed at length in the press, as he works to mitigate the effects of the sub-prime lending debacle, the spiraling rise in oil prices, and the sharp increase in food costs. Bernanke is facing a stern test as America's central banker a test created for him, in large part, by his predecessor, Alan Greenspan.

In the two decades Greenspan served as Fed chair, central bankers who formerly worked as obscure bureaucrats became geopolitical megastars with international recognition. This switch can largely be identified with Greenspan, who helped guide the U.S. to new heights of prosperity, but who also bears significant responsibility for the subprime-induced credit crisis and all the related problems plaguing the economy.

But while their visibility may have changed dramatically, the underlying role played by central bankers has changed little. As Bernanke himself put it, "Economic growth and prosperity are created primarily by what economists call 'real' factors.... But extensive practical experience as well as much formal research highlights the crucial supporting role that financial factors play in the economy...Healthy financial conditions help a modern economy realize its full potential." No one plays a bigger role in promoting those "healthy financial conditions" than central banks, especially when it comes to price stability and the soundness of the overall financial system. The central bank also has the key power to act as lender of last resort, i.e. to "create" money. But central bankers like Bernanke can also do much to growth and prosperity with policies that jeopardize the "healthy financial conditions." Deservedly, they will get the full blame for the disaster, even if sometimes others share responsibility.

The consensus on Greenspan's performance as Fed chair used to be extremely positive, but more and more it's been called into question. Now, 2008 has seen Bernanke in the eye of a storm that was created largely during Greenspan's tenure. His management of the bubble of all bubbles will be a decisive factor in whether this crisis will be limited in its impact on the real economy or whether it directly leads to a major recession. This is "Bernanke's Test."

In examining the challenge facing Bernanke, author Johan Van Overtveldt will look back over Alan Greenspan's long record as Fed chair, as well as Ben Bernanke's career as an economist prior to replacing Greenspan. Historical context will be provided by a look at other other former Fed chairmen, such as Benjamin Strong, William McChesney Martin, Arthur Burns, and especially Greenspan's predecessor, Paul Volcker.

Central banks are rather peculiar institutions in democratically ordered societies. But today, the importance of central bankers when it comes to guiding and shaping financial circumstances cannot be underestimated.

The subprime mortgage crisis has already wreaked havoc on the lives of millions of people and now it threatens to derail the U.S. economy and economies around the world. In this trenchant book, best-selling economist Robert Shiller reveals the origins of this crisis and puts forward bold measures to solve it. He calls for an aggressive response--a restructuring of the institutional foundations of the financial system that will not only allow people once again to buy and sell homes with confidence, but will create the conditions for greater prosperity in America and throughout the deeply interconnected world economy.

Shiller blames the subprime crisis on the irrational exuberance that drove the economy's two most recent bubbles--in stocks in the 1990s and in housing between 2000 and 2007. He shows how these bubbles led to the dangerous overextension of credit now resulting in foreclosures, bankruptcies, and write-offs, as well as a global credit crunch. To restore confidence in the markets, Shiller argues, bailouts are needed in the short run. But he insists that these bailouts must be targeted at low-income victims of subprime deals. In the longer term, the subprime solution will require leaders to revamp the financial framework by deploying an ambitious package of initiatives to inhibit the formation of bubbles and limit risks, including better financial information; simplified legal contracts and regulations; expanded markets for managing risks; home equity insurance policies; income-linked home loans; and new measures to protect consumers against hidden inflationary effects.

This powerful book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how we got into the subprime mess--and how we can get out.

Allan H. Meltzer's monumental history of the Federal Reserve System tells the story of one of America's most influential but least understood public institutions. This first volume covers the period from the Federal Reserve's founding in 1913 through the Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord of 1951, which marked the beginning of a larger and greatly changed institution.

To understand why the Federal Reserve acted as it did at key points in its history, Meltzer draws on meeting minutes, correspondence, and other internal documents (many made public only during the 1970s) to trace the reasoning behind its policy decisions. He explains, for instance, why the Federal Reserve remained passive throughout most of the economic decline that led to the Great Depression, and how the Board's actions helped to produce the deep recession of 1937 and 1938. He also highlights the impact on the institution of individuals such as Benjamin Strong, governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the 1920s, who played a key role in the adoption of a more active monetary policy by the Federal Reserve. Meltzer also examines the influence the Federal Reserve has had on international affairs, from attempts to build a new international financial system in the 1920s to the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 that established the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and the failure of the London Economic Conference of 1933.

Written by one of the world's leading economists, this magisterial biography of the Federal Reserve and the people who helped shape it will interest economists, central bankers, historians, political scientists, policymakers, and anyone seeking a deep understanding of the institution that controls America's purse strings.

"It was 'an unprecedented orgy of extravagance, a mania for speculation, overextended business in nearly all lines and in every section of the country.' An Alan Greenspan rumination about the irrational exuberance of the late 1990s? Try the 1920 annual report of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve. . . . To understand why the Fed acted as it did—at these critical moments and many others—would require years of study, poring over letters, the minutes of meetings and internal Fed documents. Such a task would naturally deter most scholars of economic history but not, thank goodness, Allan Meltzer."—Wall Street Journal

"A seminal work that anyone interested in the inner workings of the U. S. central bank should read. A work that scholars will mine for years to come."—John M. Berry, Washington Post

"An exceptionally clear story about why, as the ideas that actually informed policy evolved, things sometimes went well and sometimes went badly. . . . One can only hope that we do not have to wait too long for the second installment."—David Laidler, Journal of Economic Literature

"A thorough narrative history of a high order. Meltzer's analysis is persuasive and acute. His work will stand for a generation as the benchmark history of the world's most powerful economic institution. It is an impressive, even awe-inspiring achievement."—Sir Howard Davies, Times Higher Education Supplement

Ben S. Bernanke’s rise to chair of the Fed, the massive financial crisis, and the Fed’s bold and effective response.

In 2006, Ben S. Bernanke was appointed chair of the Federal Reserve, capping a meteoric trajectory from a rural South Carolina childhood to professorships at Stanford and Princeton, to public service in Washington’s halls of power. There would be no time to celebrate, however—the burst of the housing bubble in 2007 set off a domino effect that would bring the global financial system to the brink of meltdown.

Bernanke pulls back the curtain on his efforts to prevent a mass economic failure, working with two U.S. presidents and using every Fed capability, no matter how arcane, to keep the U.S. economy afloat. His experiences during the initial crisis and the Great Recession that followed give readers an unequaled perspective on the American economy since 2006, and his narrative will reveal for the first time how the creativity and decisiveness of a few key leaders prevented an economic collapse of unimaginable scale.

Few periods in history compare to the Great Depression. Stock market crashes, bread lines, bank runs, and wild currency speculation were worldwide phenomena--all occurring with war looming in the background. This period has provided economists with a marvelous laboratory for studying the links between economic policies and institutions and economic performance. Here, Ben Bernanke has gathered together his essays on why the Great Depression was so devastating.

This broad view shows us that while the Great Depression was an unparalleled disaster, some economies pulled up faster than others, and some made an opportunity out of it. By comparing and contrasting the economic strategies and statistics of the world's nations as they struggled to survive economically, the fundamental lessons of macroeconomics stand out in bold relief against a background of immense human suffering. The essays in this volume present a uniquely coherent view of the economic causes and worldwide propagation of the depression.

Over the past fifteen years, a significant number of industrialized and middle-income countries have adopted inflation targeting as a framework for monetary policymaking. As the name suggests, in such inflation-targeting regimes, the central bank is responsible for achieving a publicly announced target for the inflation rate. While the objective of controlling inflation enjoys wide support among both academic experts and policymakers, and while the countries that have followed this model have generally experienced good macroeconomic outcomes, many important questions about inflation targeting remain.

In Inflation Targeting, a distinguished group of contributors explores the many underexamined dimensions of inflation targeting—its potential, its successes, and its limitations—from both a theoretical and an empirical standpoint, and for both developed and emerging economies. The volume opens with a discussion of the optimal formulation of inflation-targeting policy and continues with a debate about the desirability of such a model for the United States. The concluding chapters discuss the special problems of inflation targeting in emerging markets, including the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary.

This report makes available certain information submitted to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors concerning agreements between credit card issuers and institutions of higher education or certain affiliated organizations, such as alumni associations or foundations, that provide for the issuance of credit cards to college students. Contents: Introduction; Overview of College Credit Card Agreements; Detailed Information about College Credit Card Agreements; College Credit Card Agreements in Effect in 2010; College Credit Card Agreements Terminated in 2010; Corrected Information Regarding College Credit Card Agreements in Effect in 2009. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand edition of an important, hard-to-find report.

You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.

eReaders and other devices

To read on e-ink devices like the Sony eReader or Barnes & Noble Nook, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Please follow the detailed Help center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.